I did not full get the ending. So she leaves Bill's little sister at the school, and then just gets on a random train and she doesn't know anyone? And then the sister runs off with some girl (who was at the train station watching her get on the train) and then waits for somebody for 2 hours with the sister?
Did I get it jumbled up or what?
The girl Linda goes with at the end is the same girl who was walking with her through the fields at the beginning and who Linda was chasing after when everyone was getting on the trains after harvest was over. She saw Abby get on the train and must have figured Linda was nearby.
As to why Abby got on the train, well, that confuses me too, but I have two ideas. One is that she just needs to get away and just gets on the first train she sees. The other is that she wants to meet a new man, or she needs more money and plans on servicing the men for cash.
Bale/Hulme/Schreiber/Hoffman/Hoskins
Batman: Escalation
6/08
Oh I think Abby starts prostituting....Liz and her buddy are on the path that Abby takes which is relying on the kindness of male strangers that's my take-
"Ya makin' fun of me Riz?"- Sandy
Here's the original ending from Malick's script:
312 UNDERWATER SHOT
Bill’s blood fades off quickly in the gliding water of the
river. The line of frightened catfish dances out behind
him like a garland.
313 OTHER ANGLES
A dog trots off in alarm.
Benson wades into shore, tears streaming down his face,
his chest heaving with emotion.
Abby falls to the ground in a convulsion of grief.
A short way down the river PEOPLE come and go along the
bridge where they were to meet.
314 ISOLATED ON ROLLER PIANO
A roller piano sits in a corner by itself, playing a fox-
trot. The camera moves back.
315 INT. ARBORETUM - ATTIC
YOUNG DANCERS are learning the foxtrot in the attic of the
Arboretum, a tacky Western version of an Eastern finishing
school. The steps are painted on the floor as white footprints.
Abby is apparently enrolling Ursula here. The headmistress,
MADAME MURPHY, boasts of the school’s achievements.
Ursula looks trapped. Abby checks her watch.
She must go.
316 EXT. BRICK STREET
Abby and Ursula walk down an empty street. Abby wears a
mourning band on her sleeve. She is under the false im-
pression that Ursula likes her new home. An INDIAN PORTER
carts her bags along behind them in a wheelbarrow.
ABBY
They’ll teach you poise, too, so you can walk in any room you
please. Pretty soon you’ll know all kind of things.
(pause)
I never read a whole book till I was fifteen. It was by Caesar.
They laugh at her careful pronunciation of “Caesar.”
317 EXT. TRAIN STATION
Abby’s train is about to leave. The CONDUCTOR walks by
blowing a whistle. A five-piece BAND plays Sousa airs.
They are practically the only civilians on the platform.
The rest are SOLDIERS bound for Europe, where America has
just entered the War, on fire with excitement and a sense
of high adventure.
URSULA
I like your hat.
ABBY
It doesn’t seem like a bird came down and landed on my head?
Abby takes the hat off and gives it to Ursula, who lately
has begun to take more trouble with her appearance, comb-
ing her hair free of its usual snarls. They laugh at their reflection
in a window of the train.
ABBY
I hardly ever wear it. Be sure and write every week.
Signals nod. A lamp winks. There are leave-takings up
and down the platform as the train slides away. Abby hops
on board. A SOLDIER next to her sheds bitter tears.
URSULA
You write me, too!
They wave goodbye.
318 EXT. ARBORETUM - NIGHT
Late that evening Ursula lowers herself out a third-floor
window of the Arboretum with a rope made of bedsheets.
319 TIGHT ON GIRLS AT WINDOW
The other GIRLS stand in their nightgowns and wave good-
bye, amazed at her boldness.
She slips off into the night.
320 EXT. BACKSTAGE DOOR — NIGHT
Ursula looks in a backstage door. She can see, through
the wings, a MAN dancing on stage. There is a feeling of
mad excitement about the place.
The person she is looking for is not here, however.
321 EXT. ALLEY — URSULA’S THEME — NIGHT
She runs down an alley. A man steps out of the shadows--
George, the pilot. She throws herself in his arms. This
is our first sight of him since he left the bonanza.
URSULA
You’re here! Oh, hug me!
They kiss madly, with mystery. The moonlit, midsummer night thrums
URSULA
Aren’t we happy? Oh, George, has anybody ever been this happy?
He rocks her back and forth in his arms. They laugh,
thinking what lucky exceptions they are to the world’s
misery.
URSULA
Hurry. They’ll be looking for me.
322 EXT. AIRPLANE - DAWN
George bundles Ursula, giggling, into a biplane.
URSULA
This doesn’t even belong to you. Suppose they catch us?
323 EXT. PASTURE -- DAWN
From a pasture outside town the plane rises into the vast dawn sky.
324 INT. TEXTILE FACTORY
Abby changes bobbins on a huge loom. A pall of lint and
anonymous toil hangs over the factory. Down the way a
handsome MALE WORKER smiles at her. She smiles back,
interested.
ABBY
‘It seems an age we’ve been apart, and truly is for those who
love each other so. Whenever shall we meet?’
325 TIGHT ON MACHINERY
The shuttle rockets back and forth. Off camera we hear
Abby reading what seems part of a letter to Ursula.
ABBY (o.s.)
Soon, I hope, for by and by we’ll all be gone, Urs. Does
it really seem as though we might?’
326 UNDERWATER SHOT
We look from the bottom of a river up toward the light.
In the foreground, dangling from the tip of a submerged
limb, is the bracelet Abby threw away.
ABBY (o.s.)
‘The other day I tried to think how I’d look laid out in a solemn
white gown. Closing my eyes I could almost hear you tiptoe in look down in my face, so deep asleep, so still.
327 EXT. FIELDS - SERIES OF ANGLES
The PEOPLE of the Razumihin rebuild the land -- raising
fences and sinking a well, plowing down the stubble and
putting in the seed.
ABBY (o.s.)
‘I went to Lincoln Park Zoo the other day. It was great as usual.
I enclose a check.’
An ANONYMOUS YOUNG MAN, standing on a carpet
of new-sprung wheat, looks up with a start. From the
distance comes a ghostly noise--the call of the prairie
chickens at their spring rites. He listens for just a moment,
then returns to work.
THE END
1. where did you find this?
2. this is nothing like the movie - Ursula from the script is a micture of Linda and her friend so she must be older.
3. it reads like Malick though - like a Poem.
...this is nothing like the movie...That's Malick.
OK, here it goes. Abby dumps Linda off at the Girls School because she's splitting. When Sam Shepard dies guess what, Abby gets all his money. They were married a while so he must have changed his will. Bill killed the farmer so Abby is free and clear. Look at Abby's dress in the last scene, she' rolling in it. She puts Linda up in a boarding school so she can dump her guilt free. She loved Bill and Linda was a tag-a-long. With Linda confined to the school she's free to live her life as a rich woman.
shareYou've got it right, I think, Carpenter.
shareThis is probably right, although it seems a bit implausible that Abby could get out of any culpability, scot-free, and get the inheritance. That older guy who was always suspicious of them would presumably testify in court that they were scammers, after the farmer's money, and her running with Gere's character would seem to be a tacit admission of guilt in that regard.
By the same token, it strikes me that if they had not run, Gere could have possibly avoided being arrested (or killed, as he was). Either they could have hidden the fact that he stabbed the farmer, or pleaded self defense. Once they ran, it looked very bad.
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See a list of my favourite films here: http://www.flickchart.com/slackerinc
"Or pleaded self defense".
Especially as it ´was´ in self defense, of course.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Right, although it was the type of situation where that was going to be hard to prove, and to convince a jury that the rich farmer who'd never hurt anyone was the aggressor against the ne'erdowell (to show motive, Gere's character would have to implicate himself in some shady business which would then turn the suspicion back on himself). It might have been better just to act as though some random unknown assailant had killed the farmer.
In any event, it does sound like we agree that running was not the smart play.
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See a list of my favourite films here: http://www.flickchart.com/slackerinc
...When Sam Shepard dies guess what, Abby gets all his money. They were married awhile so he must have changed his will...
i don't know except for any cash at the house, The 3 took off, like within an hour of the farmers death it seemed-no time to go to banks and proceedings to inherit property/money …..i also thought Abbey should have taken care of Linda-as a favor to Bill
shareShe got on the train because she wanted to go to war as a nurse. I think it said in the beginning something like this. Also the ballerina school wasn't what Linda wanted for herself, as Abby chose this for her (Abby tells the farmer that she wanted to become a ballerina too when she was little)
shareAbby needs someone to take care of her. Her husband and boyfriend are both dead.... Getting on a train with a bunch of men seems pretty logical to me.
The little girl was a free spirit, and hopefully she'll get on well enough with her friend.
You're not supposed to be confident that everyone will be all right... but you can at least hope.